Information and help on glass fusing, stained glass, kiln forming, acid etching, sandblasting and other areas of working with glass.

Wednesday, 13 April 2016

Peeking Without a Vent

What can I do
if my kiln does not have a plug?

To understand
thoroughly what is happening to your glass while firing, observation is
key. This means that an observation port
is an ideal feature of any kiln.

However, many
kilns are made without ventilation or observation ports. This means that several possibilities need to
be considered.

The easiest
is simply to open the door or lid a small amount to make a brief
observation. This means that you have to
set up the piece to be fired in such a place it can be seen from a small
opening of the door/lid. This brief
opening of a small space will not normally cause any problem to the glass or
kiln. At the higher temperatures, you
need to take personal safety precautions against the heat and light from the kiln.

It is
possible to be more radical and drill an observation port through the metal
casing and brick or fibre lining of the kiln.
This is then filled with a piece of fire brick or roll of fibre blanket. This is sufficient to insulate the heat from
the external part of the kiln. This port
should be about 50mm diameter to give a decent field of view.

A further
refinement is to place a quartz viewing window in the hole you have
drilled. This viewing piece will become
very hot, but not visibly red. So, you
must provide some insulating cover over the window.

But best of
all, is to purchase a kiln with a viewing port in the first place.

Comments about Glass Tips

'Your Treasure Trove of tips and "How to do" articles are the best I have found, since they are so "no nonsense" and as "Traditional" metods that I have found. I think everyone that interested in glass work should read them."